Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Yampa Valley Beauty!

In picking a subject for WAG Wednesday I very often don’t have any personal visual recollection of, or experience with something the late Bill Gibson photographed. But I can sure look at said subject from Bill’s collection and react with pure railfanning excitement. Other than riding the RGZ in November of 1979 I know next-to-nothing about Rio Grande passenger operations.

But in a recent scanning session I fell in love with a couple of Bill’s shots of the D&RGW’s “Yampa Valley Mail” back in 1966. This short, 2-car train is obviously in its declining years. But what a sight! Who doesn’t love a nice clean PA in action? And the usual dome-coach bringing up the rear. What a gorgeous train! And of course: there goes that PA starting to act like an honorary steam engine. And how about that string of period vehicles off to the side?

I know pure railfan delight when I see it. So I’m hoping you enjoy these Bill Gibson shots as much as I do…

1. D&RGW 6001 heads up train #9, a short & sweet Yampa Valley Mail.

2. Bringing up the rear is dome/coach #1248.
Two photos taken near North Yard in Denver, CO on September 12, 1966 by William A. Gibson (WAG) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/22 03:55 by santafe199.

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Yep, you chose well !

Excellent!

What a great photo of my favorite class of locomotives.  The Alco PA.

A thing of beauty - would love to be able to model that train in HO!

BTW, for those of us who live in a cave, what does WAG stand for please?

Cheers, Jim Fitch

SPDRGWfan Wrote: >...what does WAG stand for please?

The initials of the father-son Kansas railfan photographers William Arthur Gibson both Bill (Sr, dec. 1983) & Art (Jr), retired and living in Topeka, KS. Bill & Art have been affectionately known for decades as WAG Sr & WAG Jr by their numerous friends & fellow railfan fraternity members. It is my honor to be scanning & archiving the entire Gibson collection. And it is through Art's generosity, the same railfan generosity many of us "youngsters" learned from Bill, we are able to see photo gems from the collection here on TO. I have naturally used the nickname WAG for our Wednesday threads...

Lance/199

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SPDRGWfan Wrote: >...what does WAG stand for
> please?
>
> The initials of the father-son Kansas railfan
> photographers William Arthur Gibson both Bill (Sr,
> dec. 1983) & Art (Jr), retired and living in
> Topeka, KS. Bill & Art have been affectionately
> known for decades as WAG Sr & WAG Jr by their
> numerous friends & fellow railfan fraternity
> members. It is my honor to be scanning & archiving
> the entire Gibson collection. And it is through
> Art's generosity, the same railfan generosity many
> of us "youngsters" learned from Bill, we are able
> to see photo gems from the collection here on TO.
> I have naturally used the nickname WAG for our
> Wednesday threads...
>
> Lance/199

AKA Wild A-- Guess

Uncle Joe,Seffner,fl.

Please don't post stuff like this without advance notice, the slobber plays hell with my
keyboard! Damn fine shots!

Out

callum_out Wrote: > ...the slobber plays hell with my keyboard...

(chuckling) I have the very same problem whenever I open one of Bill's little yellow Kodak boxes...

;^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/15 12:22 by santafe199.

Whata catch! Looks like the whole train is in fresh paint!
JB

A+, only because our alphabet doesn't provide a higher letter I can give these photos.  Looks like the guy driving the old Buick on the bridge in the first shot is even looking at the varnish.  Wonder if we could talk Mr. McCormack into repainting his Alco into this scheme for awhile? 

Thanks for showing us these show-stoppers!

Rich

Maybe the Rio Grande experts can answer, did the Yampa Valley Mail become the Yampa  Valley  after the loss of the mail contract in 63-64 sometime? 

Seventyfive Wrote:

>  Wonder if we could talk Mr. McCormack into
> repainting his Alco into this scheme for
> awhile? 

Unfortunately, McCormack torched off the style of numberboard/class light housing modeled by 6001 in order to install NKP's F-unit style number boxes on his PA.

I wonder what it was like to run that train . . . only two cars, not much braking effort.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunately, McCormack torched off the style of
> numberboard/class light housing modeled by 6001 in
> order to install NKP's F-unit style number boxes
> on his PA.

True. So it woudln't look quite the same. But I bet that even with EMD numberboard what would be  handsome paint job.
 

Overpass is I-70 on the south end of D&RGW's North Yard.  Grade crossing is 48th Street which was rebuilt into a highway overpass with sidewalk on the north side.  Terrific images and wonderful scans!

Nice, and look at all the vehicles in the background!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com 

Well fiddlesticks, Sir DJ L!!  Those shots got the photo juke box in gear with Billy Satellite's "I Wanna Go Back", as covered by Eddie Money.  Ya did it again!!  Whew.  Very nice shots.

IC1038west.